I got older. Bummer. My birthday this year happened to fall on the same day as the third AT exam. Even bigger bummer. Having an AT exam means there's no AT class though so I invited the class to Bob Evans after the exam for my birthday brunch. For those not familiar, Bob Evans is a "Casual chain started on an Ohio farm & known for hearty family-style meals & a country vibe." All you really need to know is that they have good pancakes and lots of 'em.
The weather has warmed up enough for me to start exploring the Mon River Rail-Trail by bike which is how I learned they have cherry trees here. It's a very pleasant bike ride or walk or run if you're one of those people. In college I either rode my bike or walked everywhere so having to drive all the time in Morgantown was driving me crazy. Getting some fresh air and sunshine once or twice a week has greatly improved my mood.
Classes have been more of the same but I had my first rotation in the gross room! Every student gets 1 hr a day for 4 days to work on real patient specimens with the PAs. I'll be honest, I completely flopped on this rotation. I found out the week prior that my shoulder injury from last year's car accident hadn't healed right and would need a few months of physical therapy. This meant I had to go cold turkey on my exercise routine. No biking, boxing or lifting. I have been working out consistently since high school and whenever I abruptly stop I immediately develop debilitating insomnia. Severe lack of sleep + stress of working on real specimens = a lot of silly, preventable mistakes. I confidently grossed a gallbladder but otherwise I ended that week feeling like a failure.
I'm willing to bet most students will feel like that at some point. Whether it's an exam that went poorly or an embarrassing mistake in front of the PAs, nobody is going to be perfect. Give yourself a few days to wallow in self-pity then learn from the mistake and move on. The point of being a student is to learn. If you knew everything already you wouldn't be here.
Comments